MH17: Australia mourns victims as residents near crash site asked to hand in belongings and human remains

Two Weeks Later, Is MH17 Debris Field Tainted?4:38

It is nearly two weeks since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot out of the sky and the crash site is still unsecured. WSJ?s Ramy Inocencio speaks with Tom Ballantyne of Orient Aviation who says shrapnel, even from bodies, must be recovered.

CHURCH bells across Australia will ring out at midday today as the nation formally mourns the 38 Australian citizens and residents killed in the MH17 tragedy.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove will be joined by premiers and chief ministers, the public, and families of the victims in a national memorial service at Melbourne’s St Patricks’s Cathedral at 10.30am.

Tribute will be paid to the 298 people who died when Malaysian Airlines flight 17 was shot out of the sky by pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine on July 17.

Flags will fly at half-mast across the country all day as Australians remember those who were killed, and whose bodies lie either still in the fields where the plane went down, or in a military base in the Netherlands, pending identification.

The service today will feature the Australian Boys Choir, while Katie Noonan will sing “Even When I’m Sleeping” and “We Are Australian’’.

A baritone soloist from the Opera Australia, Sam Roberts-Smith, will sing a hymn and the national anthem, and the Dutch and Malaysian ambassadors will give readings.

Mr Abbott, Sir Peter, and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will each speak, and Mr Abbott will offer the national memorial tribute.

A floral wreath tribute will be laid.

Australian investigators and Australian Federal Police officers are continuing to search the site in Ukraine where the plane went down, seeking human remains and personal belongings.

Mr Abbott said it was not yet possible to say how many bodies had been recovered from the crash site and taken to the Netherlands for identification.

He said “painstaking work’’ was underway to use DNA testing to assist with the formal identification.

“What we are engaged on at the moment is as thorough and complete a professional search as we can manage given this is happening in the middle of the war zone,’’ Mr Abbott told the ABC.

Mission under fire, plea for locals’ help

DURING searching at the MH17 crash site today the team of police distributed flyers to the locals in the Eastern Ukraine village of Rozspyne seeking their assistance.

The flyers asked the residents for assistance in finding and handing over any personal belongings of the passengers on the downed Malaysia Airlines flight and also any human remains.

The investigation team is also asking residents to come forward with eyewitness accounts and information about the day the jet exploded over their quiet village on July 17, raining aircraft parts, suitcases and personal belongings and bodies down upon them.

Earlier for the fifth consecutive day, the international team of police and experts searching the crash site had their work interrupted by fighting in the vicinity of the site.

The head of the mission, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, said a small number of personal belongings from the passengers on board MH17 were found on Tuesday but no human remains.

Mr Aalbersberg said that locals and the local authorities had recovered a large amount of human remains immediately after the crash and this may explain why now it is mostly personal belongings being recovered.

Again on Tuesday fighting in the area halted the search effort while negotiations went on to secure safety for the Australian, Dutch and Malaysian police officers involved.

“It once again became clear that the crisis situation is a limiting factor for the experts’ work. The plain fact is that there is active fighting in the area. Access to the crash site is never 100 per cent certain,” Mr Aalbersberg said.

On Tuesday a large area near the village of Roszypne was searched, stopping temporarily due to fighting.

Later in the day a smaller group of experts then worked undisturbed in the afternoon. The search of the area around the village has now been completed.

“Our mission cannot succeed without the support off the local and regional population and authorities. We are and remain very grateful for that,” Mr Aalbersberg said.

So far only two of the 298 passengers and crew on board MH17 have been positively identified by a team of disaster victim identification experts working in the Netherlands.

On Monday a single coffin, containing human remains found during searches on Friday and Saturday, was returned to the Netherlands. About 250 family members of the victims, most Dutch, was at Eindhoven air base to witness the repatriation ceremony.

Dutch authorities have pledged that each return of remains will be accorded the same ceremony. However there is no word yet on when any more remains will be returned.

And authorities have said they will announce the details of positive identification of bodies each Friday.

Wreckage examined in detail ... Investigators at the site where Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down. Picture: APSource:AP

Dutch police say they have now received 302 photographs and videos of the crash, the crash site and the disaster after making a public appeal for all material to be provided.

Investigators intend using them to conduct a reconstruction of the crash and to piece together what happened.

They say the files are still being downloaded and examined and it is too early to say exactly what they contain.

The files have come from all around the world, including the Ukraine in response to a police plea for assistance.

News.com.au's Privacy Policy includes important information about our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information (including to provide you with targeted content and advertising based on your online activities). It explains that if you do not provide us with information we have requested from you, we may not be able to provide you with the goods and services you require. It also explains how you can access or seek correction of your personal information, how you can complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with a complaint of that nature.